‘Dunkirk’ Trailer Will Give You Chills

One of the hallmarks of Christopher Nolan‘s films is the visuals, the clean and crisp and stunning visuals. The trailer opens with soft suspenseful music and World War 2 soldiers walking through an empty town as pamphlets falling from the sky. A soldier catches one as its gliding, reading the message: ‘WE SURROUND YOU. SURRENDER. SURVIVE.’

Dunkirk is based on the historic Battle of Dunkirk (or Operation Dynamo), an evacuation of over 300,000 Allied forces from the shores of Dunkirk, France after the Nazi forces have them surrounded in 1940. The trailer shows these British and Allied troops unsure on how they can survive. The location of Dunkirk means they are trapped on the beach with their backs to the sea, facing an impossible situation with the enemy growing closer and closer. They are attacked on their shores, the body count grows and men are throwing themselves in the sea. It will a harrowing and chilling event to witness.

The World War 2 genre is not unheard of in entertainment with the likes of Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line. But from what we’ve gathered from the trailer, it looks like Nolan will be historically accurate while giving us a breathtaking film. Nolan will be directing from his own original screenplay, utilizing a mixture of IMAX® and 65mm film. He is also opting for authenticity over CGI, using real naval destroyers for sea battle sequences in this film.

Featuring a prestigious cast, some of whom have worked with Nolan before including Tom Hardy (“The Revenant,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,”), Mark Rylance (“Bridge of Spies,” “Wolf Hall”), Kenneth Branagh (“My Week with Marilyn,” “Hamlet,”) and Cillian Murphy (“Inception,” “The Dark Knight” Trilogy), as well as newcomer Fionn Whitehead. As soldiers and other ranking officers within the Allied forces, the trailer shows these characters terrified, determined, hopeless and strong in their situation, a war time event only written about in textbooks without the human side of the story. With a cast like this, we are bound to get a top notch performance that may be Oscar worthy. The ensemble cast also includes Aneurin Barnard, Harry Styles, James D’Arcy, Jack Lowden, Barry Keoghan and Tom Glynn-Carney.

We’ve only had a taste of what is to come and knowing Nolan, this war epic will be a story of heroism and sacrifice, a powerful and harrowing depiction of this historical event; a humanisation of wartime.